If It's Not One Thing, It's Your Mother
This week three sites - two of them Jewish - tackled an age old question: Who is a Jew? Not surprisingly, the identity of the mother was at the center of all three discussions.
The first is an opinion piece from the Jerusalem Post, in which author Raymond Apple argues that matrilineality is still the most important factor when determining an individual's Jewish identity. In early biblical times Jewishness could be traced through the father, but this eventually changed because you always know who the mother is - even if the father's identity is elusive. And what's more, Apple continues: mothers have a stronger bond with their children, as well as more influence over their child's religious development. Hence the mother's identity is paramount. "Matrilineality is here to stay."
Apple's article raises difficult questions. For instance, what about children with a Jewish father who are raised Jewish and identify as Jews? Or identify as half-Jews? In a blog post titled "The Half-Jew's Complaint" Sadie - a young woman with a Jewish father and a non-Jewish mother - struggles with just this issue. Half-Jew is an identity, she argues, though after enduring a lifetime of Jews accusing people like her father of ruining Judaism she also feels ambivalent. "It's hard to know how we'd suddenly feel if the rabbinate suddenly let us second-classers in," she concludes.
So far eighty-seven people have responded to Sadie's post, making comments that ranged from serious to somewhat tongue in cheek. "I've been told I'm a 'half breed' or - my favorite - a 'wrong half.' And then non Jews tell me I am stupid for calling myself 'half Jewish' because its just not possible," remarked one reader, while another one asked "What about us quarter-Jews? I feel so under-represented I could shalom a chutzpah." One point was made several times throughout the comments: half and quarter Jews were Jewish enough for Hitler.
Apple's article also begs the issue of mothers who have converted to Judaism. What about their children? This question was at the center of a recent U.K. ruling that Jewish schools are guilty of racial discrimination if they reject children because of who their parents are. The way a family practices Judaism - not birth or conversion - should be the standard by which schools evaluate their students, the Court of Appeal said. The decision was prompted by the JFS of London (the oldest and largest Jewish school in England), which denied "a boy admission because it did not recognize his mother’s conversion." The boy's father sued the school claiming that its actions were racist and illegal. Initially he lost the case, but on June 25th - two years later - the Court of Appeal found in his favor.
I've heard mixed reactions to the U.K. ruling. Some of the people I've chatted with think the court has overstepped its bounds and is imposing a secular (perhaps even Christian) standard on Jewish schools. Others think this is an important step towards inclusiveness. Whatever comes of the U.K. case, all three of these articles demonstrate the same thing: Jewish identity is not easily pinned down and the conversation of "Who is a Jew" is still very much alive today.
What are your thoughts?
Except in Israel, which is under constant Muslim threat of much larger populations, Jews are not a majority anywhere. And now the Israeli government doesn’t even want to attract Jews to Israel. It all has to do with an overly assiduous, and I would argue non-Jewish, attention to geneology and and nature of conversions. If you read the Torah, and study Jewish communal practices in Europe and America, where there is reasonable historical information, you will see that the essence of Jewish practice has been to keep Jews together in hostile or potentially hostile environments. This applies the the kashruth laws, the holidays, and other communal practices. But what we see now among the ultra-orthodox in Israel are earnest efforts to exclude Jews. That renders them unJewish. Excluding those for whom there is evidence of a secutiry threat, any person who claims to be a Jew, and who lives a Jewish lifestyle is a Jew. It is convenient to identify a Jew by his mothers Jewishness, but if that son of a Jewish mother has ignored practicing anything Jewish, or has accepted membership in a Christian organization, or a Muslim community, maternal idenity would not be sufficient. But the very idea that a practicing Jewish mother would have her Jewishness anulled because the rabbi who presided over her conversion was not the choice of the Israeli rabbinate, bespeaks the action of a Jewish like, but essentially non-Jewish cult. It is more than a shanda that they are taken seriously by anyone in the Israeli government.
DEFINITION: The English word “Jew” is a translation of the Greek word Ioudaios, Ιουδαιος (2453) in its various grammatical forms. Depending on its use in context, it has a meaning of
1. A descendant of Judah, the forth son of Jacob/Israel and a descendant of Jacob/Israel through Judah.
2. A resident or one decended from the Roman Province of Judea.
From Paul: The Apostle To The Jews at Rome, Page 85, ISBN 0-9651120-6-3
I think any on who excepts “EL” and his love and authority should be considered a Jew. Questions like this is what makes ” The Conservative Reconstruction Project” so big. It keeps growing because people have a voice.
I was raised conservative with the belief that the mother must be Jewish for the children to be. However, since the rate of intermarriage is over 50%, with only 1/3 of those raising their children Jewish, I feel it is critical for anyone raised and practicing Judaism be considered Jewish.
Churches are very good at outreach and for those intermarried couples, the lack of support by the Jewish community only adds to their lure.
Rubbish! If you want to embrace Judaism regardless of whether mother or father is Jewish than do it. Stop listening to trash talk about half breed etc.
Go with your heart! We are all surrounded by negative people. This may sound simplistic, just do it!
There is no such thing as a half-Jew. Either aperson is or is not. The mother must have been Jewish for anyone to be Jewish. The father can be a non-Jew. If the father is Jewish but the mother is not,the child is not Jewish. The Torah defines this and this cannot be changed. A non -Jew can become Jewish only by embracing the Torah in its entirety and observe the laws ,not as a watered-down version.
My husband & I want to make aliyah. I’m probably Jewish but haven’t been able to prove it yet. He is Jewish and has birth and death certificates of his Grandfather on his mothers side but Rabbi’s won’t accept that. They claim he has have burial certificate saying his Grandfather was buried in Jewish cemetery, well he wasn’t. Now what?
We are all born without knowledge. If my parents believe in a specific religion, and I in another; what am I? We end up what we were taught and believe. We practice the teachings of others, if we believe them. If we don’t, we simply do not practice what they believe in. So, if I do not follow a specific teaching; always found in some original writings, but sadly with too many different scholarly interpretations and lost of self serving politic thrown in, then how can I be classes as a follower of those teachings if my great grand parents did but I do not? A wise person once said: “Men and nations only act wisely only after exhausting all other possibilities”. And by the way, just look how the interpretations of men have changed over the years as knowledge and language capabilities have changed. You be the judge of those who profess to possess the ultimate truth.
If your good enough to take a box car ride with me your good enough to be called Jew. The Orthodox have way to much time on their hands. Who’s a Jew is stupid and serves no one. In my opinion it is just another way to make powerless people feel good about them self’s. G=d could care less.
I find this whole controversy silly. It exists solely because “Jews” can’t give up an ancient tribal cultural convention that holds that everyone who is a member of the tribe is also a member of the tribe’s religion.
Is Jewish an ethnic classification? No, Jews are of many ethnic groups. Is Jewish a religious classification? No, Jews are often atheists. So who is a Jew? It is a group of people who hang on to an archaic tradition that makes no sense in the modern world – a tradition they can no longer sort out themselves.
My mother was Jewish and my father Baptist. My husband’s father was Jewish and his mother Methodist. He was raised as a Jew in every sense of the word – his parents divorced when he was 5 and his father got full custody. He, nor I have ever considered ourselves anything but Jewish. Our two daughters were raised Jewish and we now have a grandson in a Jewish Day School. I don’t care what some Rabbis in Israel say – we know in our hearts and in our acts and in our spirit who and what we are. We did not go through all the anti-semitism in school not to be who we are, nor did our daughters. We are proud to stand up for the fact that we are Jewish, and the shul loves our money enough that they would never question us — that’s what it all boils down to isn’t it? All the questioning and finger pointing is only driving people away from Judaism. I say accept people who want to sincerely be Jewish and let’s put some life back into our religion.
My whole family were wealthy ashkenazi & sephardic Jews. But over the years the women married goy, in order to survive being killed. My family was well known and a main target for Nazi’s & Russians alike, it wasn’t like they could flee and not be found. Fortunately, my family escaped to S. America & the US. Few who remained Jewish were men and the other half who converted to christianity or catholocism went back to their home countries. I am here today because of the strong women who chose to “blend,” for survival. I consider myself a Jewish woman, though Orthodox and many others consider me a goy. Honestly, my take on it is… JEWISH PEOPLE NEVER EXISTED UNTIL MOSES HEARD FROM GOD & THOSE WHO FOLLOWED MOSES CHOSE TO BE CONVERTED… GOD SAID CONVERT ALL THOSE WHO WANT TO LEARN. SO WHY ARE ALL THE “ORIGINAL” LINES OF CONVERTS DISCRIMINATING AGAINST NEW CONVERTS OR OTHER LESS RELIGIOUS JEWISH PEOPLE?
NOT ONE JEW IS BETTER THAN ANOTHER; IT IS WRITTEN. THE JEWISH PEOPLE ARE ALL “FAVORED” BY GOD, SO WITH SUCH A GREAT HONOR & BURDEN NOT ONLY SHOULD ALL JEWISH PEOPLE BE UNITED BUT THEY SHOULD BE ACCEPTING AND EXAMPLES TO THE WORLD OF HOW TO PROPERLY BE A UNITED & GOD ABIDING CULTURE AS WELL AS RELIGION. WE CANNOT TEACH COMMON SENSE BUT WE CAN BE THE EXAMPLE OF WHAT SHOULD BE.